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October 1, 2023
The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2023-228

Last week's post on Moon of Alabama:

—
Other issues:

Syria:

Canada:

Downfall:

Rules based order:

Elections:

Waging Wars:

Use as open (not Ukraine related) thread …

Posted by b on October 1, 2023 at 13:29 UTC | Permalink
Comments

I took the time to read Mr. Freeman’s essay.
He knows his audience and tries to avoid “taking the Russian side” while still getting some reality into the discussion.
He might as well piss up a rope.
But I have to give him credit for trying, and getting published with it.
The article by Ian Welsh is also worth the time, nice to see him too.
Now off to read some more.

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 1 2023 14:12 utc | 1

I took the time to read Mr. Freeman’s essay.
He knows his audience and tries to avoid “taking the Russian side” while still getting some reality into the discussion.
He might as well piss up a rope.
But I have to give him credit for trying, and getting published with it.
The article by Ian Welsh is also worth the time, nice to see him too.
Now off to read some more.

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 1 2023 14:12 utc | 2

Something I find strange about this 21st Century world of always-on, always watching, always regarding infotainment and opinion is the total absence of content (in context) from Russia or Ukraine (but I see a gap generally true no matter what country).
I should use the word gulf, above, not “gap”.
I’m well aware of a vast world of social media posting so vast as to be incomprehensible; it’s like trying to account for a sea by counting raindrops, and it far too much comes across as fetish.
It’s like the world is electronically totally interconnected but it has some weird ethereal other kind of distance built in to it. You could say it was simply a language barrier, but machine translation overcame this a while ago.
My first thought was there’s a great wealth of international news available, I’m simply not really looking for it.
But then reading MoA, no one here is either! Everything “reported” here on MoA (I use the term hesitantly because there’s no journalism in any classical sense here, it’s a compendium of pre-processed and intellectually regurgitated artifacts lifted from other domains — e.g., Seymour Hersh).
Everything posted here begins with third-hand, or more distant, sources. Ukraine is not even fly-over county. We only even get Zelensky because he’s on an endless international begging junket. What does Zelensky say to Ukrainians at home?
I’ve expended a small amount of effort to find Russian news outlets on the web and translate them. I was impressed that they are absent of any intellectual culture. They read like national versions of the magazines found in airline seat pockets.
What’s a Russian version of MoA? What are they saying. If there is none, why? What does that tell us about what it means to be Russian today.
Do Ukrainians read MoA and in any way trust its regards to help them gain a sense of how a bigger world is regrading their trials and tribulations?
I probably shouldn’t even try to get started about the comments here as no matter the article, these immediately and reliably veer away from the scant and distant relay of whatever 3rd person nuggets are under immediate consideration towards diatribes that read like drug-addled street person loudly ranting a litany of antagonistic gibberish to the interlocutors in their head. Even when comments are coherent to the topic of the article, they read like transcriptions on one side of a phone conversation overhead in a restaurant. Every comment thread begins with “Don’t attack other commenters” and every thread reliably devolves into commenters attacking each other. Tedious and exhausting.
I realize there’s an acme which I may have already reached of my own comments being just another part of this tedium. And I have nothing insightful to offer on my own question beyond acknowledging my lack of insight… But my question stands: where are the voices from those who are directly involved in the topics at hand? Why is there such a gulf between whatever’s happening on the ground and all these distant regards and prognostications?
Rather than bringing readers closer to war and it’s costs, these “alternative” outlets have stepped further back: These are regards of regards of others regards.

Posted by: Arrnon | Oct 1 2023 14:28 utc | 3

Something I find strange about this 21st Century world of always-on, always watching, always regarding infotainment and opinion is the total absence of content (in context) from Russia or Ukraine (but I see a gap generally true no matter what country).
I should use the word gulf, above, not “gap”.
I’m well aware of a vast world of social media posting so vast as to be incomprehensible; it’s like trying to account for a sea by counting raindrops, and it far too much comes across as fetish.
It’s like the world is electronically totally interconnected but it has some weird ethereal other kind of distance built in to it. You could say it was simply a language barrier, but machine translation overcame this a while ago.
My first thought was there’s a great wealth of international news available, I’m simply not really looking for it.
But then reading MoA, no one here is either! Everything “reported” here on MoA (I use the term hesitantly because there’s no journalism in any classical sense here, it’s a compendium of pre-processed and intellectually regurgitated artifacts lifted from other domains — e.g., Seymour Hersh).
Everything posted here begins with third-hand, or more distant, sources. Ukraine is not even fly-over county. We only even get Zelensky because he’s on an endless international begging junket. What does Zelensky say to Ukrainians at home?
I’ve expended a small amount of effort to find Russian news outlets on the web and translate them. I was impressed that they are absent of any intellectual culture. They read like national versions of the magazines found in airline seat pockets.
What’s a Russian version of MoA? What are they saying. If there is none, why? What does that tell us about what it means to be Russian today.
Do Ukrainians read MoA and in any way trust its regards to help them gain a sense of how a bigger world is regrading their trials and tribulations?
I probably shouldn’t even try to get started about the comments here as no matter the article, these immediately and reliably veer away from the scant and distant relay of whatever 3rd person nuggets are under immediate consideration towards diatribes that read like drug-addled street person loudly ranting a litany of antagonistic gibberish to the interlocutors in their head. Even when comments are coherent to the topic of the article, they read like transcriptions on one side of a phone conversation overhead in a restaurant. Every comment thread begins with “Don’t attack other commenters” and every thread reliably devolves into commenters attacking each other. Tedious and exhausting.
I realize there’s an acme which I may have already reached of my own comments being just another part of this tedium. And I have nothing insightful to offer on my own question beyond acknowledging my lack of insight… But my question stands: where are the voices from those who are directly involved in the topics at hand? Why is there such a gulf between whatever’s happening on the ground and all these distant regards and prognostications?
Rather than bringing readers closer to war and it’s costs, these “alternative” outlets have stepped further back: These are regards of regards of others regards.

Posted by: Arrnon | Oct 1 2023 14:28 utc | 4

– Deluded Europe can’t see that it’s finished – Gerard Arnaud / Telegraph (!)

Of course, the headline is “Deluded Europe” not “Deluded Anglo-Americans” or “Deluded Neocons” or “Deluded MI6”. Eventually you have to finesse the message once you’ve lost (As you always knew you would) and use it to hit your other targets on the retreat. You hit em’ going, you hit em’ leaving.

Posted by: Altai | Oct 1 2023 14:42 utc | 5

– Deluded Europe can’t see that it’s finished – Gerard Arnaud / Telegraph (!)

Of course, the headline is “Deluded Europe” not “Deluded Anglo-Americans” or “Deluded Neocons” or “Deluded MI6”. Eventually you have to finesse the message once you’ve lost (As you always knew you would) and use it to hit your other targets on the retreat. You hit em’ going, you hit em’ leaving.

Posted by: Altai | Oct 1 2023 14:42 utc | 6

From the Chas Freeman article, which is actually pretty valuable despite pretending Russia’s invasion and annexation were “illegal”:

“…whatever the outcome of the war, Kyiv (sic) and Moscow will eventually have to find a basis for coexistence.”

There is no need to find a basis for coexistence in an increasingly likely scenario where Russia will – whatever Putin wants – have to occupy and incorporate Kiev and Ukranazistan, as a country, will cease to exist.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 1 2023 15:03 utc | 7

From the Chas Freeman article, which is actually pretty valuable despite pretending Russia’s invasion and annexation were “illegal”:

“…whatever the outcome of the war, Kyiv (sic) and Moscow will eventually have to find a basis for coexistence.”

There is no need to find a basis for coexistence in an increasingly likely scenario where Russia will – whatever Putin wants – have to occupy and incorporate Kiev and Ukranazistan, as a country, will cease to exist.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 1 2023 15:03 utc | 8

Reading Levine’s latest was sure a trip. I see he and his crew still can’t get a text out that wouldn’t>/I> degenerate into giddy spurts of hatred for Russians as a people and gross mispresentation of everything they or their life is like.
With experts like these, Russia has to worry about many more attempts to wage war against it in the future – but it absolutely needs not fear losing any of them, because those idiots, both homegrown and emigrated “truer Russians”, are lost in their own hateful fantasies and will never be able to accurately gauge their enemy.

Posted by: Red Outsider | Oct 1 2023 15:04 utc | 9

Reading Levine’s latest was sure a trip. I see he and his crew still can’t get a text out that wouldn’t>/I> degenerate into giddy spurts of hatred for Russians as a people and gross mispresentation of everything they or their life is like.
With experts like these, Russia has to worry about many more attempts to wage war against it in the future – but it absolutely needs not fear losing any of them, because those idiots, both homegrown and emigrated “truer Russians”, are lost in their own hateful fantasies and will never be able to accurately gauge their enemy.

Posted by: Red Outsider | Oct 1 2023 15:04 utc | 10

From the Ian Welsh article:

“…one takeaway is that conscription is likely to come back.”


The single most important reason that the Imperialist States of Amerikastan’s wars of choice since the 1980s have always been wildly popular is that the people doing the cheering know perfectly well that they themselves and their family members are in no way at risk; they won’t have to put life and limb on the line since the war will be fought by someone else. Reinstatementof conscription will see that support for wars of imperial aggression disappear in a heartbeat, and the regime knows it very well. Also, one major reason for the recruitment shortfalls in the Amerikastani armed forces is rampant mental illness, drug addiction, and obesity in the recruitment pool, correct? What makes anyone imagine that with conscription all that will go away too?

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 1 2023 15:18 utc | 11

From the Ian Welsh article:

“…one takeaway is that conscription is likely to come back.”


The single most important reason that the Imperialist States of Amerikastan’s wars of choice since the 1980s have always been wildly popular is that the people doing the cheering know perfectly well that they themselves and their family members are in no way at risk; they won’t have to put life and limb on the line since the war will be fought by someone else. Reinstatementof conscription will see that support for wars of imperial aggression disappear in a heartbeat, and the regime knows it very well. Also, one major reason for the recruitment shortfalls in the Amerikastani armed forces is rampant mental illness, drug addiction, and obesity in the recruitment pool, correct? What makes anyone imagine that with conscription all that will go away too?

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 1 2023 15:18 utc | 12

Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 1 2023 15:18 utc | 6
u$$a used conscription in the war against one (to sunder unified) vietnam because early on a national guard unit sent to the conflict was wiped out by the viet cong. the number of funerals in the local area of these soldiers caused the national guard to stay home and conscripts did all the dying in the failed attempt to keep vietnam two countries.
mobilized units of national guard will be needed for several years as conscription won’t build until the first several year raising is dead, maimed or discharged and the conscript pool becomes a rotation.
A decimated local unit would be needed…..
u$$a consciption would be a sign the straussians (who run the nazistanis) have total control of u$$a.

Posted by: paddy | Oct 1 2023 15:32 utc | 13

Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 1 2023 15:18 utc | 6
u$$a used conscription in the war against one (to sunder unified) vietnam because early on a national guard unit sent to the conflict was wiped out by the viet cong. the number of funerals in the local area of these soldiers caused the national guard to stay home and conscripts did all the dying in the failed attempt to keep vietnam two countries.
mobilized units of national guard will be needed for several years as conscription won’t build until the first several year raising is dead, maimed or discharged and the conscript pool becomes a rotation.
A decimated local unit would be needed…..
u$$a consciption would be a sign the straussians (who run the nazistanis) have total control of u$$a.

Posted by: paddy | Oct 1 2023 15:32 utc | 14

Welsh’s article on Germany was good. Nothing very new but a useful summary.
As to Levine’s piece- am I missing something? It was not by him but by Evgenia Koda. An alter ego or pseudonym ? Looks more like a partner.
And the piece was well worth the price of admission for the novel excerpt from 1928. Mych less shrill than Levine’s normal ‘defector-lit’ stuff.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 1 2023 15:37 utc | 15

Welsh’s article on Germany was good. Nothing very new but a useful summary.
As to Levine’s piece- am I missing something? It was not by him but by Evgenia Koda. An alter ego or pseudonym ? Looks more like a partner.
And the piece was well worth the price of admission for the novel excerpt from 1928. Mych less shrill than Levine’s normal ‘defector-lit’ stuff.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 1 2023 15:37 utc | 16

The US government’s complaints about Chinese “disinformation” campaign are vastly hypocritical! Outstandingly so, even for the US government!
Change a few names and they could be describing themselves. Julian Assange is imprisoned by the US for honest journalism. As Gore Vidal once said, it you read the New York Times and the Washington Post (etc.) very carefully and between the lines, it’s possible to learn something which is true! Certainly the efforts to censor alternative or dissident points of view from alternative media as “disinformation” are impressive in a bad way.

Posted by: lester | Oct 1 2023 15:53 utc | 17

The US government’s complaints about Chinese “disinformation” campaign are vastly hypocritical! Outstandingly so, even for the US government!
Change a few names and they could be describing themselves. Julian Assange is imprisoned by the US for honest journalism. As Gore Vidal once said, it you read the New York Times and the Washington Post (etc.) very carefully and between the lines, it’s possible to learn something which is true! Certainly the efforts to censor alternative or dissident points of view from alternative media as “disinformation” are impressive in a bad way.

Posted by: lester | Oct 1 2023 15:53 utc | 18

thanks b and the many other thoughtful posters and contributors to this site!
@ Arrnon | Oct 1 2023 14:28 utc | 2 quote :
“Rather than bringing readers closer to war and it’s costs, these “alternative” outlets have stepped further back: These are regards of regards of others regards.”
bullshit…and the rest of your commentary is bullshit too.. keep on having fun with words, but they’re vacuous and empty to me..

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 16:02 utc | 19

thanks b and the many other thoughtful posters and contributors to this site!
@ Arrnon | Oct 1 2023 14:28 utc | 2 quote :
“Rather than bringing readers closer to war and it’s costs, these “alternative” outlets have stepped further back: These are regards of regards of others regards.”
bullshit…and the rest of your commentary is bullshit too.. keep on having fun with words, but they’re vacuous and empty to me..

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 16:02 utc | 20

Posted by: bevin | Oct 1 2023 15:37 utc | 8
Evgenia is his wife/partner

Posted by: vato | Oct 1 2023 16:06 utc | 21

Posted by: bevin | Oct 1 2023 15:37 utc | 8
Evgenia is his wife/partner

Posted by: vato | Oct 1 2023 16:06 utc | 22

Yasha Levine is a dangerous fake leftist imo. He’s an adherent of the Frankfort School of phony Marxism. He’s not stupid and one article linked here on a Jewish group linked to the Soviets was interesting, but the guy is all in on the Imperialist conception of Russia and it oozes out of every sentence.
“And it works — his approval ratings went up and a majority of Russians does seem to believe that a reboot of the Great Patriotic War is happening right now, with another crop of satanic Nazis who need be destroyed and taught a lesson once again. The fact is that people so easily fell for it is also a consequence of the non-existence of politics in Russia. There is only the aesthetization of politics, which as Walter Benjamin noted is rooted in the fascist nature of a regime.”
You know them by their intellectual authorities. Anyone who quotes Walter Benjamin is typically posing as left or even socialist to push a misanthropic narrative about the impossibility of socialism, ending with the grudging acceptance of imperialism, but settling for a minimum program of abstract goals like “anti racism” or “green politics”, that do not disturb and even somewhat enhance the credibility of imperialism.
Mosh Postone is probably the leading light of this misanthropic, holier than thou crowd. Trash.
He doesn’t say so, but based on what I’ve read, he probably assumes the world is just so irretrievably anti semitic (read racist) and thus incapable or unworthy of any higher socioeconomic system than the shitty one we’ve got.
This crowd is descended directly from the Frankfort School and the postmodernists, who all abandoned Marxism in the 30s and replaced imperialism with things like patriarchy. Intellectual worms.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:14 utc | 23

Yasha Levine is a dangerous fake leftist imo. He’s an adherent of the Frankfort School of phony Marxism. He’s not stupid and one article linked here on a Jewish group linked to the Soviets was interesting, but the guy is all in on the Imperialist conception of Russia and it oozes out of every sentence.
“And it works — his approval ratings went up and a majority of Russians does seem to believe that a reboot of the Great Patriotic War is happening right now, with another crop of satanic Nazis who need be destroyed and taught a lesson once again. The fact is that people so easily fell for it is also a consequence of the non-existence of politics in Russia. There is only the aesthetization of politics, which as Walter Benjamin noted is rooted in the fascist nature of a regime.”
You know them by their intellectual authorities. Anyone who quotes Walter Benjamin is typically posing as left or even socialist to push a misanthropic narrative about the impossibility of socialism, ending with the grudging acceptance of imperialism, but settling for a minimum program of abstract goals like “anti racism” or “green politics”, that do not disturb and even somewhat enhance the credibility of imperialism.
Mosh Postone is probably the leading light of this misanthropic, holier than thou crowd. Trash.
He doesn’t say so, but based on what I’ve read, he probably assumes the world is just so irretrievably anti semitic (read racist) and thus incapable or unworthy of any higher socioeconomic system than the shitty one we’ve got.
This crowd is descended directly from the Frankfort School and the postmodernists, who all abandoned Marxism in the 30s and replaced imperialism with things like patriarchy. Intellectual worms.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:14 utc | 24

Crooke is always a good read:
“We’re doing this through what I like to call diplomatic variable geometry”
So, peasant, if you don’t understand what appears to be an absolutely insane and doomed imperialist foreign policy, your probably unable to understand the intricacies of diplomatic variable geometry. Luckily, you have the chosen one Blinken to manage things for you, so shut up and enjoy the ride.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:23 utc | 25

Crooke is always a good read:
“We’re doing this through what I like to call diplomatic variable geometry”
So, peasant, if you don’t understand what appears to be an absolutely insane and doomed imperialist foreign policy, your probably unable to understand the intricacies of diplomatic variable geometry. Luckily, you have the chosen one Blinken to manage things for you, so shut up and enjoy the ride.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:23 utc | 26

Yash Levine’s piece misses the mark. History shapes events more than any individual intention. Putin is pushed by history to embrace a more authoritarian regime because if he didn’t billions would pour into Russia from the West to overthrow the Russian government and install a vassal state as the West attempted in the 90s. Russia, China, Iran have to go into defensive stances as the US covert ops and criminal networks that largely control (at a distance) the West’s political institutions. Russia must emphasize it’s military power and militarize the population to a WWII style situation. Washington is an Empire and they want Russia to bend over and accept the red-white-and blue you know what up its collective rectum as Germany does. If that happens, China, the real enemy as I know the current view goes, becomes “contained.”
The Ukraine War is of critical importance to Russia–it must prevail and will prevail or it will become the vassal state Washington craves to stifle China. We have to understand Washington’s motivation in this crusade, i.e., they believe that only the Empire can provide a decent future world as Blinken and his neocon friends clearly believe. Russia now understands that this crusade will continue for “as long as it takes.” The US political system becomes more authoritarian every day with a committed cadre of neo-Maoists (the wokesters) providing the dream of totalitarianism as wind at the back of the neocons who clearly dream of an ideological state of neo-fascism to replace the Constitutional system. It’s going to get scary next year as attempts will be made to fix the election so Trump cannot win. I’m of the opinion that the election will have many irregularities and “Biden” is likely to win. I mean with all the “responsible” media run by the intel operatives and the Democratic Party–it seems unlikely that a mojority will move against the official Party line.

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Oct 1 2023 16:30 utc | 27

Yash Levine’s piece misses the mark. History shapes events more than any individual intention. Putin is pushed by history to embrace a more authoritarian regime because if he didn’t billions would pour into Russia from the West to overthrow the Russian government and install a vassal state as the West attempted in the 90s. Russia, China, Iran have to go into defensive stances as the US covert ops and criminal networks that largely control (at a distance) the West’s political institutions. Russia must emphasize it’s military power and militarize the population to a WWII style situation. Washington is an Empire and they want Russia to bend over and accept the red-white-and blue you know what up its collective rectum as Germany does. If that happens, China, the real enemy as I know the current view goes, becomes “contained.”
The Ukraine War is of critical importance to Russia–it must prevail and will prevail or it will become the vassal state Washington craves to stifle China. We have to understand Washington’s motivation in this crusade, i.e., they believe that only the Empire can provide a decent future world as Blinken and his neocon friends clearly believe. Russia now understands that this crusade will continue for “as long as it takes.” The US political system becomes more authoritarian every day with a committed cadre of neo-Maoists (the wokesters) providing the dream of totalitarianism as wind at the back of the neocons who clearly dream of an ideological state of neo-fascism to replace the Constitutional system. It’s going to get scary next year as attempts will be made to fix the election so Trump cannot win. I’m of the opinion that the election will have many irregularities and “Biden” is likely to win. I mean with all the “responsible” media run by the intel operatives and the Democratic Party–it seems unlikely that a mojority will move against the official Party line.

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Oct 1 2023 16:30 utc | 28

From the Oliver Crooke piece about Fukuyama’s bullshit:

The Ukraine war has also been shaped as the projection of a new identitarian, diversity, and pro-trans ‘imagined community’ set in polar opposition to that of the Russian traditional values. This clash of values could not be better symbolised than by its two spokespersons: On the one hand, the trans woman from Nevada, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo who was (until a day ago) Ukraine’s military spokesperson, and on the other, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

It is not just Russian traditional values, but the values of the 7/8ths of the global population outside the West, and very significant chunks of the population within the West. By overreaching, the Western elites are throwing away the cultural hegemony that they have spent hundreds of years putting in place.
Now of course, Crooke holds on to the ignorant stupidity of “cultural Marxism”, when this is most definitely a Western bourgeois progressive project of attempted divide and conquer after the Occupy Wall Street protests shone the light directly at the bourgeois elites after the Global Financial Crisis. A simple logic, Marxism without historical materialism is like a burger without a patty. One is simply ungrounded bourgeois critical theory and the other is simply a bun.
The attempt at divide and conquer is now massively backfiring both at home as well as abroad, while also undermining social cohesion and the basic academic areas that are central to economic development.

Posted by: Roger | Oct 1 2023 16:30 utc | 29

From the Oliver Crooke piece about Fukuyama’s bullshit:

The Ukraine war has also been shaped as the projection of a new identitarian, diversity, and pro-trans ‘imagined community’ set in polar opposition to that of the Russian traditional values. This clash of values could not be better symbolised than by its two spokespersons: On the one hand, the trans woman from Nevada, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo who was (until a day ago) Ukraine’s military spokesperson, and on the other, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

It is not just Russian traditional values, but the values of the 7/8ths of the global population outside the West, and very significant chunks of the population within the West. By overreaching, the Western elites are throwing away the cultural hegemony that they have spent hundreds of years putting in place.
Now of course, Crooke holds on to the ignorant stupidity of “cultural Marxism”, when this is most definitely a Western bourgeois progressive project of attempted divide and conquer after the Occupy Wall Street protests shone the light directly at the bourgeois elites after the Global Financial Crisis. A simple logic, Marxism without historical materialism is like a burger without a patty. One is simply ungrounded bourgeois critical theory and the other is simply a bun.
The attempt at divide and conquer is now massively backfiring both at home as well as abroad, while also undermining social cohesion and the basic academic areas that are central to economic development.

Posted by: Roger | Oct 1 2023 16:30 utc | 30

Posted by: Red Outsider | Oct 1 2023 15:04 utc | 5
On this, I agree, Red. Yasha is a very familiar archetype in California: phony left imperialist cheerleader.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:33 utc | 31

Posted by: Red Outsider | Oct 1 2023 15:04 utc | 5
On this, I agree, Red. Yasha is a very familiar archetype in California: phony left imperialist cheerleader.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:33 utc | 32

I wish people would read more carefully.
Posted by: Red Outsider | Oct 1 2023 15:04 utc | 5
It’s not Levine’s latest nor did he write it at all. It’s very clearly written by his wife. I suppose b should have pointed this out, though.
Posted by: bevin | Oct 1 2023 15:37 utc | 8
The article has been shared here before. It’s over a year and a half old (April 13, 2022) so I’m really not sure why b posted it today.
Just adds to the confusion.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 16:36 utc | 33

I wish people would read more carefully.
Posted by: Red Outsider | Oct 1 2023 15:04 utc | 5
It’s not Levine’s latest nor did he write it at all. It’s very clearly written by his wife. I suppose b should have pointed this out, though.
Posted by: bevin | Oct 1 2023 15:37 utc | 8
The article has been shared here before. It’s over a year and a half old (April 13, 2022) so I’m really not sure why b posted it today.
Just adds to the confusion.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 16:36 utc | 34

Levine’s, or rather Kovda’s, piece is dated April 13, 2022. Not sure why it was posted today. I don’t follow Levine but I was under the vague impression that his views had changed and become more favorable to Putin and the war since then. I could be wrong.

Posted by: Mouse | Oct 1 2023 16:36 utc | 35

Levine’s, or rather Kovda’s, piece is dated April 13, 2022. Not sure why it was posted today. I don’t follow Levine but I was under the vague impression that his views had changed and become more favorable to Putin and the war since then. I could be wrong.

Posted by: Mouse | Oct 1 2023 16:36 utc | 36

@ Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:14 utc | 13
it appears that link b provides to yasha levine is actually written by EVGENIA KOVDA… what i find interesting is how yasha likes to position himself as some sort of authority on russia, as if russia was a finished work of art and not in the process of becoming something new and creative in this moment.. in order to criticize this ”work of finished art” yasha has to tear apart putin and venerate lenin, not thinking that different leaders have different visions of the future and that russian culture and the nation is a work in progress…
but i think the bigger beef i have with him is his inability to recognize how the west wants to destroy it.. he is essentially a part of this destruction, as he has made his bed in the usa and can’t for his life, contemplate that the struggle for russian identity is just as important as his struggle for his own! he is too busy justifying himself to see any of that… well -that is how i see it.. i don’t know much of anything about marxism as i haven’t studied it…
i am reading a book on the bolsheviks by adam b. ulam…at the time the book which came out in the 60’s or 70’s was thought to be “the most rewarding single study of lenin that i have yet encountered” new york times book review… i can’t know, but the picture that gets painted of lenin is one of an ordinary individual who was conflicted like any other great leader might be! of course we aren’t allowed to know that, except in retrospect, but what i am trying to say is yasha levine is just as much conflicted in his interpretation of history and events – russian or his own.. i basically agree wtih you when you say he is a dangerous fake leftist, even though i am not exactly sure what a leftist is supposed to be.. these terms break down for me quickly as i think there is a huge amount of subjectivity in all the words we use… thanks for your commentary!

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 16:38 utc | 37

@ Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:14 utc | 13
it appears that link b provides to yasha levine is actually written by EVGENIA KOVDA… what i find interesting is how yasha likes to position himself as some sort of authority on russia, as if russia was a finished work of art and not in the process of becoming something new and creative in this moment.. in order to criticize this ”work of finished art” yasha has to tear apart putin and venerate lenin, not thinking that different leaders have different visions of the future and that russian culture and the nation is a work in progress…
but i think the bigger beef i have with him is his inability to recognize how the west wants to destroy it.. he is essentially a part of this destruction, as he has made his bed in the usa and can’t for his life, contemplate that the struggle for russian identity is just as important as his struggle for his own! he is too busy justifying himself to see any of that… well -that is how i see it.. i don’t know much of anything about marxism as i haven’t studied it…
i am reading a book on the bolsheviks by adam b. ulam…at the time the book which came out in the 60’s or 70’s was thought to be “the most rewarding single study of lenin that i have yet encountered” new york times book review… i can’t know, but the picture that gets painted of lenin is one of an ordinary individual who was conflicted like any other great leader might be! of course we aren’t allowed to know that, except in retrospect, but what i am trying to say is yasha levine is just as much conflicted in his interpretation of history and events – russian or his own.. i basically agree wtih you when you say he is a dangerous fake leftist, even though i am not exactly sure what a leftist is supposed to be.. these terms break down for me quickly as i think there is a huge amount of subjectivity in all the words we use… thanks for your commentary!

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 16:38 utc | 38

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 16:36 utc | 18
i agree with your question at the end.. not sure why b posted that, lol… but it is a conversation starter!

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 16:39 utc | 39

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 16:36 utc | 18
i agree with your question at the end.. not sure why b posted that, lol… but it is a conversation starter!

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 16:39 utc | 40

Posted by: Arrnon | Oct 1 2023 14:28 utc | 2
First off, props to anyone who actually read your long winded drivel past the 3rd paragraph.
You appear to be confused. This is the week in review. If you had actually clicked on the links that begin each topic (before “related”) you’d find plenty of original analytical journalism.
Maybe you need to step away from the always on bs and social media you spent three paragraphs bitching about.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 16:43 utc | 41

Posted by: Arrnon | Oct 1 2023 14:28 utc | 2
First off, props to anyone who actually read your long winded drivel past the 3rd paragraph.
You appear to be confused. This is the week in review. If you had actually clicked on the links that begin each topic (before “related”) you’d find plenty of original analytical journalism.
Maybe you need to step away from the always on bs and social media you spent three paragraphs bitching about.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 16:43 utc | 42

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 16:38 utc | 20
I’ve got a good book for you if you really want understand Lenin, but it’s on his predecessor Plenkanov.
Plekhanov: The Father of Russian Marxism https://g.co/kgs/45SnjU. By Samuel Baron.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:44 utc | 43

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 16:38 utc | 20
I’ve got a good book for you if you really want understand Lenin, but it’s on his predecessor Plenkanov.
Plekhanov: The Father of Russian Marxism https://g.co/kgs/45SnjU. By Samuel Baron.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:44 utc | 44

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 16:36 utc | 18
He published it and his wife wrote it. They represent the same political species and I imagine they have a happy marriage.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:46 utc | 45

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 16:36 utc | 18
He published it and his wife wrote it. They represent the same political species and I imagine they have a happy marriage.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:46 utc | 46

@Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:14 utc | 13

This crowd is descended directly from the Frankfort School and the postmodernists, who all abandoned Marxism in the 30s and replaced imperialism with things like patriarchy. Intellectual worms.

Such an excellent take on these fake “critical theorists”.
@Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Oct 1 2023 16:30 utc | 15

History shapes events more than any individual intention. Putin is pushed by history to embrace a more authoritarian regime because if he didn’t billions would pour into Russia from the West to overthrow the Russian government and install a vassal state as the West attempted in the 90s

But that would mean that Yasha would have to engage with historical materialism!
I subscribed to Levine’s site for a while and then dropped it after reading too many commentaries attempting to claim that Russia is Imperial and that Putin is the new Tsar. He is most definitely from the fake Marxist, “critical theory”, camp. He cant see the political-economic wood for the socio-cultural trees. I am surrounded by such people in the Western academy.
We are seeing in Russia what happened to the Soviet Union after the revolution. The repeated attacks by the West, aided by the traitorous liberal West-loving scum, force Russia to become more authoritarian to resist the Western attempts at colour revolution and military attack. The fifth-column of the liberals has now been pretty much ejected or cowed, and only true Russian patriots are in charge. The prosecution of the biggest oligarch points to Putin’s further drive to place the bourgeois capitalist class under firm state control.
Unlike the Soviet Union in the 1920s, Russia can trade with 7/8ths of the world which includes the highly advanced Chinese nation. And also an Iran which developed its own industries under sanctions, and a North Korea with a well developed MIC. The West is cordoning itself off, not the other way round.

Posted by: Roger | Oct 1 2023 16:50 utc | 47

@Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:14 utc | 13

This crowd is descended directly from the Frankfort School and the postmodernists, who all abandoned Marxism in the 30s and replaced imperialism with things like patriarchy. Intellectual worms.

Such an excellent take on these fake “critical theorists”.
@Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Oct 1 2023 16:30 utc | 15

History shapes events more than any individual intention. Putin is pushed by history to embrace a more authoritarian regime because if he didn’t billions would pour into Russia from the West to overthrow the Russian government and install a vassal state as the West attempted in the 90s

But that would mean that Yasha would have to engage with historical materialism!
I subscribed to Levine’s site for a while and then dropped it after reading too many commentaries attempting to claim that Russia is Imperial and that Putin is the new Tsar. He is most definitely from the fake Marxist, “critical theory”, camp. He cant see the political-economic wood for the socio-cultural trees. I am surrounded by such people in the Western academy.
We are seeing in Russia what happened to the Soviet Union after the revolution. The repeated attacks by the West, aided by the traitorous liberal West-loving scum, force Russia to become more authoritarian to resist the Western attempts at colour revolution and military attack. The fifth-column of the liberals has now been pretty much ejected or cowed, and only true Russian patriots are in charge. The prosecution of the biggest oligarch points to Putin’s further drive to place the bourgeois capitalist class under firm state control.
Unlike the Soviet Union in the 1920s, Russia can trade with 7/8ths of the world which includes the highly advanced Chinese nation. And also an Iran which developed its own industries under sanctions, and a North Korea with a well developed MIC. The West is cordoning itself off, not the other way round.

Posted by: Roger | Oct 1 2023 16:50 utc | 48

Once more on the fake leftism of the Yasha variety. Yes, Putin is anti communist and anti Lenin. Any leader in Europe is, in fact most governments the world over feel that way. He’s the leader of a post Soviet capitalist county, not Che Guevara.
But let’s look at another famous imperialist crime: the 2d war on Iraq. Lefts like Yasha, at the time had no problem denouncing that war unreservedly. Hussein was a gangster lunatic who worked with the US to attack Iran. Nonetheless, the left did not qualify it’s opposition in any way to that imperialist incursion. It was simply a full opposition to the war.
With Russia it’s very different. They are no less a victim of the worst imperialist atrocities and provocations. But, from the beginning what passes for the left in the west denounced Russia, not US imperialism. Anti war movements did development and as planned they were from the start anti Russia rallies.
Critical support to the victims of US imperialism abroad is just basic Marxism and historically the pattern for the left. With the aid of an army of Yasha’s, that was totally subverted this time.
I despise capitalism. I would be pleased if the Russian workers took power and created a new Soviet. In fact, However, any serious opponent of the war has to acknowledge that this is an imperialist war on Russia, not the other way around. US imperialism made this reality on purpose for very definite geopolitical and economic ends, which they constantly brag about. Plus, they are courting nuclear war this time! If ever the left anti war movements had a critical function it is now, to subvert US imperialism.
Putin, a capitalist though not an imperialist, is responding to the will of the people to not be destroyed by the US once again. In that he and the Russian people will always have my full support. In a healthier time when there was a genuine left in the west, I would have been joined in this sentiment by large and influential organizations.
Today my kind are forced to regroup at the bar, but I’m convinced from these discussions, a new more powerful anti war movement will emerge.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 17:07 utc | 49

Once more on the fake leftism of the Yasha variety. Yes, Putin is anti communist and anti Lenin. Any leader in Europe is, in fact most governments the world over feel that way. He’s the leader of a post Soviet capitalist county, not Che Guevara.
But let’s look at another famous imperialist crime: the 2d war on Iraq. Lefts like Yasha, at the time had no problem denouncing that war unreservedly. Hussein was a gangster lunatic who worked with the US to attack Iran. Nonetheless, the left did not qualify it’s opposition in any way to that imperialist incursion. It was simply a full opposition to the war.
With Russia it’s very different. They are no less a victim of the worst imperialist atrocities and provocations. But, from the beginning what passes for the left in the west denounced Russia, not US imperialism. Anti war movements did development and as planned they were from the start anti Russia rallies.
Critical support to the victims of US imperialism abroad is just basic Marxism and historically the pattern for the left. With the aid of an army of Yasha’s, that was totally subverted this time.
I despise capitalism. I would be pleased if the Russian workers took power and created a new Soviet. In fact, However, any serious opponent of the war has to acknowledge that this is an imperialist war on Russia, not the other way around. US imperialism made this reality on purpose for very definite geopolitical and economic ends, which they constantly brag about. Plus, they are courting nuclear war this time! If ever the left anti war movements had a critical function it is now, to subvert US imperialism.
Putin, a capitalist though not an imperialist, is responding to the will of the people to not be destroyed by the US once again. In that he and the Russian people will always have my full support. In a healthier time when there was a genuine left in the west, I would have been joined in this sentiment by large and influential organizations.
Today my kind are forced to regroup at the bar, but I’m convinced from these discussions, a new more powerful anti war movement will emerge.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 17:07 utc | 50

Ian Welsh points out that the end of the British Empire involved the two world wars. He does not say that those were both wars of choice which Britain declared without being attacked. Britain could have stayed out of both of them, in which case the British Empire might still be with us. A choice the US has today.
Perhaps Welsh is making the implicit point that empires in decline lash out in irrational wars.

Posted by: Lysias | Oct 1 2023 17:19 utc | 51

Ian Welsh points out that the end of the British Empire involved the two world wars. He does not say that those were both wars of choice which Britain declared without being attacked. Britain could have stayed out of both of them, in which case the British Empire might still be with us. A choice the US has today.
Perhaps Welsh is making the implicit point that empires in decline lash out in irrational wars.

Posted by: Lysias | Oct 1 2023 17:19 utc | 52

@ Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:44 utc | 23
thank you… Plekhanov is mentioned in this book a good bit and generally in very positive terms.. one book at a time!
———-
i recommend that article b linked to by TARIK CYRIL AMAR on germany..
alex krainer has another excellent article up on money laundering as the big problem which never gets discussed.. i think the article is quite good!
The 21st century Opium War
Like in the 19th century, the perpetrators are the bankers, but this time, the target is the USA

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 17:22 utc | 53

@ Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:44 utc | 23
thank you… Plekhanov is mentioned in this book a good bit and generally in very positive terms.. one book at a time!
———-
i recommend that article b linked to by TARIK CYRIL AMAR on germany..
alex krainer has another excellent article up on money laundering as the big problem which never gets discussed.. i think the article is quite good!
The 21st century Opium War
Like in the 19th century, the perpetrators are the bankers, but this time, the target is the USA

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 17:22 utc | 54

i appreciate and agree with @ 25 roger post and @ Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 17:07 utc | 26 post… always fun reading others views when my own are no where near as articulate!

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 17:25 utc | 55

i appreciate and agree with @ 25 roger post and @ Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 17:07 utc | 26 post… always fun reading others views when my own are no where near as articulate!

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 17:25 utc | 56

Perhaps Welsh is making the implicit point that empires in decline lash out in irrational wars.
Posted by: Lysias | Oct 1 2023 17:19 utc | 27
Rightly so, Lenin made that point in his Imperialism over a hundred years ago with greater detail and stats to back it up.
He outlined it as a dialectical movement from healthy young and yes, democratic, Capitalism to it’s opposite imperialism, the last sick stage of Capitalism in which the RC, rendered highly irrational, unleashes war to arrest it’s inevitable fall and becomes the most antidemocratic force on earth.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 17:25 utc | 57

Perhaps Welsh is making the implicit point that empires in decline lash out in irrational wars.
Posted by: Lysias | Oct 1 2023 17:19 utc | 27
Rightly so, Lenin made that point in his Imperialism over a hundred years ago with greater detail and stats to back it up.
He outlined it as a dialectical movement from healthy young and yes, democratic, Capitalism to it’s opposite imperialism, the last sick stage of Capitalism in which the RC, rendered highly irrational, unleashes war to arrest it’s inevitable fall and becomes the most antidemocratic force on earth.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 17:25 utc | 58

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:46 utc | 23
Yes exactly what I said. And well over a year ago.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 17:30 utc | 59

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:46 utc | 23
Yes exactly what I said. And well over a year ago.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 1 2023 17:30 utc | 60

I have just been reading the speech given by Charles Freeman,to which b has helpfully added a (!), and given that the speech has been discussed on a Ukraine thread last week I wish simply to underline said (!) by confining my remark to one of the summary statements in the speech which deals with the expansion of Nato. I will paraphrase but the key sentences state that the expansion of Nato was legal, but the SMO of Russia was illegal.
Someone will please explain to me how this claim makes sense. Did we not see when Russia was attempting to put missiles in Cuba during the Kennedy administration that such provocative acts are at the very least brinkmanship? Have we learned nothing from previous mistakes? Do we not care that our own families are forced to live in fear of sudden death whilst we profit from the sale of weapons of war (using my ‘we’ with respect to us Five Eyes countries and the current leadership thereof.)
This isn’t about Ukraine. This is about insanity. I’m NOT EVER going to vote for insanity.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:18 utc | 61

I have just been reading the speech given by Charles Freeman,to which b has helpfully added a (!), and given that the speech has been discussed on a Ukraine thread last week I wish simply to underline said (!) by confining my remark to one of the summary statements in the speech which deals with the expansion of Nato. I will paraphrase but the key sentences state that the expansion of Nato was legal, but the SMO of Russia was illegal.
Someone will please explain to me how this claim makes sense. Did we not see when Russia was attempting to put missiles in Cuba during the Kennedy administration that such provocative acts are at the very least brinkmanship? Have we learned nothing from previous mistakes? Do we not care that our own families are forced to live in fear of sudden death whilst we profit from the sale of weapons of war (using my ‘we’ with respect to us Five Eyes countries and the current leadership thereof.)
This isn’t about Ukraine. This is about insanity. I’m NOT EVER going to vote for insanity.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:18 utc | 62

I went back and retrieved the passage I object to at 31 above in Charles Freeman’s presentation:

What Happened and Who’s Winning What
This war was born in and has been continued due to miscalculations by all sides. NATO expansion was legal but predictably provocative. Russia’s response was entirely predictable, if illegal, and has proven very costly to it. Ukraine’s de facto military integration into NATO has resulted in its devastation.

I have to say I did not continue reading beyond this paragraph. Whatever else he has to say, I’m just not interested. This is a ‘rule based’ argument, not a ‘law based’ one. And the rules are what ‘we’ say they are, obviously, no explanation needed, no reference to the past needed. No sanity needed.
I shudder. And I think Mark Twain would shudder as well.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:31 utc | 63

I went back and retrieved the passage I object to at 31 above in Charles Freeman’s presentation:

What Happened and Who’s Winning What
This war was born in and has been continued due to miscalculations by all sides. NATO expansion was legal but predictably provocative. Russia’s response was entirely predictable, if illegal, and has proven very costly to it. Ukraine’s de facto military integration into NATO has resulted in its devastation.

I have to say I did not continue reading beyond this paragraph. Whatever else he has to say, I’m just not interested. This is a ‘rule based’ argument, not a ‘law based’ one. And the rules are what ‘we’ say they are, obviously, no explanation needed, no reference to the past needed. No sanity needed.
I shudder. And I think Mark Twain would shudder as well.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:31 utc | 64

@ juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:18 utc | 31
i think it hinges on the term ‘legal’… was putting missiles on cuban soil ‘legal’? even if it was, perhaps the focus is not on what is legal or not, or what lawyers have to say about things, but what real people who have a wider view then lawyers have to say on it.. ps – i haven’t read the freeman article..

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 18:33 utc | 65

@ juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:18 utc | 31
i think it hinges on the term ‘legal’… was putting missiles on cuban soil ‘legal’? even if it was, perhaps the focus is not on what is legal or not, or what lawyers have to say about things, but what real people who have a wider view then lawyers have to say on it.. ps – i haven’t read the freeman article..

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 18:33 utc | 66

@ juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:31 utc | 32
and natos actions in the 2014 coup d’etat were provocative and has resulted in a significant hit on the whole concept of nato, as i see it.. i don’t blame you for not continuing reading, although as i said before i saw your post @ 32 – i haven’t read it and probably won’t.. these legally minded people and scholars sometimes miss seeing the forest for the trees… there is a bigger picture here and while some might like to make like an ostrich by sticking their head in the sand, it doesn’t change what the bigger picture is here, although how we each define that is going to be different.. just on terms of bad guys and good guys, i continue to believe the west and nato are the bad guys here in spite of the legalize talk..

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 18:37 utc | 67

@ juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:31 utc | 32
and natos actions in the 2014 coup d’etat were provocative and has resulted in a significant hit on the whole concept of nato, as i see it.. i don’t blame you for not continuing reading, although as i said before i saw your post @ 32 – i haven’t read it and probably won’t.. these legally minded people and scholars sometimes miss seeing the forest for the trees… there is a bigger picture here and while some might like to make like an ostrich by sticking their head in the sand, it doesn’t change what the bigger picture is here, although how we each define that is going to be different.. just on terms of bad guys and good guys, i continue to believe the west and nato are the bad guys here in spite of the legalize talk..

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 18:37 utc | 68

Posted by: Arrnon | Oct 1 2023 14:28 utc | 2:

Everything posted here begins with third-hand, or more distant, sources. Ukraine is not even fly-over county. We only even get Zelensky because he’s on an endless international begging junket. What does Zelensky say to Ukrainians at home?

You mean, you expect MOA barflies to live in Kiev and see/hear things about what Zelenski say and does before earning the right to express an opinion here? Furthermore, after getting the Ukie take, this barfly must fly and stay in Washington to get the ground level USA reaction to what Ze had said before commenting? Geez, you have high journalistic standard. I wait to hear from you about China (which is my primary interest of geopolitics) because to hear from you because you must have lived in China for a while and knows the language as well as the political players well enough to get to the real truth before opening your mouth.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 1 2023 18:52 utc | 69

Posted by: Arrnon | Oct 1 2023 14:28 utc | 2:

Everything posted here begins with third-hand, or more distant, sources. Ukraine is not even fly-over county. We only even get Zelensky because he’s on an endless international begging junket. What does Zelensky say to Ukrainians at home?

You mean, you expect MOA barflies to live in Kiev and see/hear things about what Zelenski say and does before earning the right to express an opinion here? Furthermore, after getting the Ukie take, this barfly must fly and stay in Washington to get the ground level USA reaction to what Ze had said before commenting? Geez, you have high journalistic standard. I wait to hear from you about China (which is my primary interest of geopolitics) because to hear from you because you must have lived in China for a while and knows the language as well as the political players well enough to get to the real truth before opening your mouth.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 1 2023 18:52 utc | 70

Escobar has published an essay summarizing the main points of China’s “Shared Future” White Paper, “Pepe Escobar: Russia-China Partnership Defangs US Empire”, which is a blend of optimism and reality. I applaud the points within the manifesto, but it must be read by ordinary people, not just national policy makers, because they actually have the most critical role to play, which is to push their governments to join with those in the vanguard and perform. And that’s even more important task for those living in nations where their “leaders” are Western agents, as with Armenia and Moldova to name two very critical actors. Pepe cites Medvedev saying something I’ve been hinting at in my writing but have yet to go full bore with the topic:

But the Straussian neocon psychos in charge of the hegemon’s foreign policy keep raising the stakes. So it’s no wonder that after the recent attack on the HQ of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, a new National Security Council report leads to an ominous warning by Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev:
“NATO has turned into an openly fascist bloc similar to Hitler’s Axis, only bigger (…) It looks like Russia is being left with little choice other than a direct conflict with NATO (…) The result would be much heavier losses for humanity than in 1945.” [My Emphasis]

The outcome alluded to is quite possible given the slavish devotion of many EU “leaders” to the “neocon psychos” while ignoring their citizenry, although that seems to be a bit different in Poland at the moment. Then Pepe cites Shoigu:

And Defense Minister Shoigu all but gave away the game in terms of the long-term strategy, when he said, “the consistent implementation of measures and activity plans until 2025 will allow us to achieve our goals.”
So the SMO will not be rounded up before 2025 – incidentally, much later than the next US presidential election. After all, Moscow’s ultimate aim is de-NATOization.

The key to it all is the continuing behavior of the Outlaw US Empire that just won’t give up and save its homeland from the abyss it’s falling into. Such behavior is why Medvedev, myself and others see the Nazism imbedded within Neoliberalcon philosophy, the latter fueled by the addiction to Megalomania and Pleonexia along with the Imperialist idea formed at the end of the 19th Century to rule the world via Financialism/Neoliberalism/Imperialism, which is expressed in the Outlaw US Empire’s Full Spectrum Dominance policy goal.
So, while Harmony is sought and methods exist to attain it, the big impediment is the last remaining Criminal power from the Age of Plunder where a much larger and deeper purge is required than mere regime change.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 1 2023 18:53 utc | 71

Escobar has published an essay summarizing the main points of China’s “Shared Future” White Paper, “Pepe Escobar: Russia-China Partnership Defangs US Empire”, which is a blend of optimism and reality. I applaud the points within the manifesto, but it must be read by ordinary people, not just national policy makers, because they actually have the most critical role to play, which is to push their governments to join with those in the vanguard and perform. And that’s even more important task for those living in nations where their “leaders” are Western agents, as with Armenia and Moldova to name two very critical actors. Pepe cites Medvedev saying something I’ve been hinting at in my writing but have yet to go full bore with the topic:

But the Straussian neocon psychos in charge of the hegemon’s foreign policy keep raising the stakes. So it’s no wonder that after the recent attack on the HQ of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, a new National Security Council report leads to an ominous warning by Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev:
“NATO has turned into an openly fascist bloc similar to Hitler’s Axis, only bigger (…) It looks like Russia is being left with little choice other than a direct conflict with NATO (…) The result would be much heavier losses for humanity than in 1945.” [My Emphasis]

The outcome alluded to is quite possible given the slavish devotion of many EU “leaders” to the “neocon psychos” while ignoring their citizenry, although that seems to be a bit different in Poland at the moment. Then Pepe cites Shoigu:

And Defense Minister Shoigu all but gave away the game in terms of the long-term strategy, when he said, “the consistent implementation of measures and activity plans until 2025 will allow us to achieve our goals.”
So the SMO will not be rounded up before 2025 – incidentally, much later than the next US presidential election. After all, Moscow’s ultimate aim is de-NATOization.

The key to it all is the continuing behavior of the Outlaw US Empire that just won’t give up and save its homeland from the abyss it’s falling into. Such behavior is why Medvedev, myself and others see the Nazism imbedded within Neoliberalcon philosophy, the latter fueled by the addiction to Megalomania and Pleonexia along with the Imperialist idea formed at the end of the 19th Century to rule the world via Financialism/Neoliberalism/Imperialism, which is expressed in the Outlaw US Empire’s Full Spectrum Dominance policy goal.
So, while Harmony is sought and methods exist to attain it, the big impediment is the last remaining Criminal power from the Age of Plunder where a much larger and deeper purge is required than mere regime change.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 1 2023 18:53 utc | 72

US Marines struggling from lack of camouflage uniforms. Probably stuck on the boat from China.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Oct 1 2023 19:11 utc | 73

US Marines struggling from lack of camouflage uniforms. Probably stuck on the boat from China.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Oct 1 2023 19:11 utc | 74

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 17:07 utc | 25:

….this is an imperialist war on Russia, not the other way around. US imperialism made this reality on purpose for very definite geopolitical and economic ends, which they constantly brag about. Plus, they are courting nuclear war this time! If ever the left anti war movements had a critical function it is now, to subvert US imperialism.
Putin …. is responding to the will of the people to not be destroyed by the US once again. In that he and the Russian people will always have my full support. In a healthier time when there was a genuine left in the west, I would have been joined in this sentiment by large and influential organizations.

Forgive me for slightly changing your sentences above, [my bolds and my …], Ahenobarbus. I did so to agree with what you say here, as I think it is important to remember we are not experiencing current events in a vacuum. Russia was almost destroyed when the West ‘came to help’, and we ought not forget that.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 19:42 utc | 75

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 17:07 utc | 25:

….this is an imperialist war on Russia, not the other way around. US imperialism made this reality on purpose for very definite geopolitical and economic ends, which they constantly brag about. Plus, they are courting nuclear war this time! If ever the left anti war movements had a critical function it is now, to subvert US imperialism.
Putin …. is responding to the will of the people to not be destroyed by the US once again. In that he and the Russian people will always have my full support. In a healthier time when there was a genuine left in the west, I would have been joined in this sentiment by large and influential organizations.

Forgive me for slightly changing your sentences above, [my bolds and my …], Ahenobarbus. I did so to agree with what you say here, as I think it is important to remember we are not experiencing current events in a vacuum. Russia was almost destroyed when the West ‘came to help’, and we ought not forget that.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 19:42 utc | 76

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 1 2023 15:03 utc | 4
There is no need to find a basis for coexistence in an increasingly likely scenario where Russia will – whatever Putin wants – have to occupy and incorporate Kiev and Ukranazistan, as a country, will cease to exist.
That scenario is “increasingly likely” only in your mind, driven by bloodlust.

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Oct 1 2023 19:45 utc | 77

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 1 2023 15:03 utc | 4
There is no need to find a basis for coexistence in an increasingly likely scenario where Russia will – whatever Putin wants – have to occupy and incorporate Kiev and Ukranazistan, as a country, will cease to exist.
That scenario is “increasingly likely” only in your mind, driven by bloodlust.

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Oct 1 2023 19:45 utc | 78

From the cartoon pony fetish freak: “That scenario is “increasingly likely” only in your mind, driven by bloodlust.”
Driven by bloodlust, for sure, but it is you “exceptional” NAFO freaks who are lusting for blood.
Well, you psycho freaks are getting your blood, to the very last drop from Ukrainians. Not quite the blood you ghouls expected, but then when have things turned out in reality the way you delusional monsters expected in your delusions?

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 1 2023 19:57 utc | 79

From the cartoon pony fetish freak: “That scenario is “increasingly likely” only in your mind, driven by bloodlust.”
Driven by bloodlust, for sure, but it is you “exceptional” NAFO freaks who are lusting for blood.
Well, you psycho freaks are getting your blood, to the very last drop from Ukrainians. Not quite the blood you ghouls expected, but then when have things turned out in reality the way you delusional monsters expected in your delusions?

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 1 2023 19:57 utc | 80

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 1 2023 19:57 utc | 39
Driven by bloodlust, for sure, but it is you “exceptional” NAFO freaks who are lusting for blood.
Well, you psycho freaks are getting your blood, to the very last drop from Ukrainians.
I’m not Lindsey Graham. I’m not interested in killing any Russians. The blood of those wasted lives are on Putin’s hands. You have to make up a delusion that I want any blood and that I’m part of any “ghouls” in order to deal with reality.

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Oct 1 2023 20:03 utc | 81

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 1 2023 19:57 utc | 39
Driven by bloodlust, for sure, but it is you “exceptional” NAFO freaks who are lusting for blood.
Well, you psycho freaks are getting your blood, to the very last drop from Ukrainians.
I’m not Lindsey Graham. I’m not interested in killing any Russians. The blood of those wasted lives are on Putin’s hands. You have to make up a delusion that I want any blood and that I’m part of any “ghouls” in order to deal with reality.

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Oct 1 2023 20:03 utc | 82

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 17:22 utc | 27
I’ll check it out. Thanks, James.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 20:07 utc | 83

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 17:22 utc | 27
I’ll check it out. Thanks, James.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 20:07 utc | 84

Cartoon pony fetish freak: “We saw. He died. We came! Hahaha!”

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 1 2023 20:12 utc | 85

Cartoon pony fetish freak: “We saw. He died. We came! Hahaha!”

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 1 2023 20:12 utc | 86

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 18:37 utc | 34
Thanks for your two comments, james. I read the piece carefully to that summation point, thanks to b and to commenters on the previous open forum who admired the quotation from Mark Twain. My thought is that some of those advocating a peaceful outcome are trying to settle for what they can get – a form of diplomacy I suppose, but I don’t want a rewrite in their terms of what has made the SMO happen so that it seems Russia is intransigent in its demands. They are not; they are taking everything into account. Everything.
It is possible to revisit b’s own careful account of what has brought us to this point; it is in the archives how Russia (and commenters here) pointed out when Ukraine’s admission to Nato was being discussed, that terms by which Nato could allow this to happen were being ignored; and how international funds could be extended in assistance while that country was in turmoil, attacking its own population, reneging on its own agreements with respect to the gaslines from Russia across its territories, and so on.
We followed these happenings here, on nakedcapitalism.com, on the saker site, and elsewhere step by step. Everyone didn’t make mistakes, not in this short span of history. Russia did not act presumptuously; they waited; they followed international law; Lavrov spelled out all the attempts at diplomacy. It is all on record.
Yes, early on,just after the column of troops paused outside Kiev, the Russians were ready to compromise. We saw what happened, and we listened as Merkel laughed later on. That ship has sailed.
I can’t say what they will be willing to accept when and if this all ends as soon as I hope and pray it will; but all of that is set down and must be taken into account, not papered over. And the further the lies keep happening, the less will be left of that willingness to talk, if it hasn’t disappeared already. We’re fast approaching the bottom of Pandora’s box. I hope there’s more than just hope left at the bottom, for all our sakes.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 20:26 utc | 87

Posted by: james | Oct 1 2023 18:37 utc | 34
Thanks for your two comments, james. I read the piece carefully to that summation point, thanks to b and to commenters on the previous open forum who admired the quotation from Mark Twain. My thought is that some of those advocating a peaceful outcome are trying to settle for what they can get – a form of diplomacy I suppose, but I don’t want a rewrite in their terms of what has made the SMO happen so that it seems Russia is intransigent in its demands. They are not; they are taking everything into account. Everything.
It is possible to revisit b’s own careful account of what has brought us to this point; it is in the archives how Russia (and commenters here) pointed out when Ukraine’s admission to Nato was being discussed, that terms by which Nato could allow this to happen were being ignored; and how international funds could be extended in assistance while that country was in turmoil, attacking its own population, reneging on its own agreements with respect to the gaslines from Russia across its territories, and so on.
We followed these happenings here, on nakedcapitalism.com, on the saker site, and elsewhere step by step. Everyone didn’t make mistakes, not in this short span of history. Russia did not act presumptuously; they waited; they followed international law; Lavrov spelled out all the attempts at diplomacy. It is all on record.
Yes, early on,just after the column of troops paused outside Kiev, the Russians were ready to compromise. We saw what happened, and we listened as Merkel laughed later on. That ship has sailed.
I can’t say what they will be willing to accept when and if this all ends as soon as I hope and pray it will; but all of that is set down and must be taken into account, not papered over. And the further the lies keep happening, the less will be left of that willingness to talk, if it hasn’t disappeared already. We’re fast approaching the bottom of Pandora’s box. I hope there’s more than just hope left at the bottom, for all our sakes.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 20:26 utc | 88

My apologies for going OT in the previous comment. It is difficult not to go into specifics — I intended to present a broad outline of international adherence to international law in support of my original comment. I believe Russia has done the best they were able in this respect.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 20:44 utc | 89

My apologies for going OT in the previous comment. It is difficult not to go into specifics — I intended to present a broad outline of international adherence to international law in support of my original comment. I believe Russia has done the best they were able in this respect.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 20:44 utc | 90

Arrnon @ 2:
You could try reading Yalensis’s Awful Avalanche blog. He translates Russian-language news articles into English on a daily (or almost daily) basis for those interested in seeing what Russians themselves might see and read. The blog itself is very lively with a good comments section, in part due to Yalensis’s own bubbly personality and zany humour. Where Yalensis finds the original Russian-language articles, I am not sure as I do not know Russian myself.
I am not exactly sure where Yalensis lives but it’s somewhere in the southern United States, probably in or near Texas.
I’m sure you realise that the news media in Ukraine is closely controlled by the Zelensky government and most Ukrainians have no access to media that express alternative viewpoints.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Oct 1 2023 20:47 utc | 91

Arrnon @ 2:
You could try reading Yalensis’s Awful Avalanche blog. He translates Russian-language news articles into English on a daily (or almost daily) basis for those interested in seeing what Russians themselves might see and read. The blog itself is very lively with a good comments section, in part due to Yalensis’s own bubbly personality and zany humour. Where Yalensis finds the original Russian-language articles, I am not sure as I do not know Russian myself.
I am not exactly sure where Yalensis lives but it’s somewhere in the southern United States, probably in or near Texas.
I’m sure you realise that the news media in Ukraine is closely controlled by the Zelensky government and most Ukrainians have no access to media that express alternative viewpoints.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Oct 1 2023 20:47 utc | 92

“…the key sentences state that the expansion of Nato was legal, but the SMO of Russia was illegal.
Someone will please explain to me how this claim makes sense. Did we not see when Russia was attempting to put missiles in Cuba during the Kennedy administration that such provocative acts are at the very least brinkmanship? Have we learned nothing from previous mistakes?…
This isn’t about Ukraine. This is about insanity. I’m NOT EVER going to vote for insanity.
Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:18 utc | 31”
The US boasts that killing Russians is the best possible investment. That Russia should be broken up, dismembered, and – presumably – recolonized by the west. That no, of course NATO isn’t aiming for that and that of course the SMO is “illegal”. And in the meantime, let’s rehabilitate the NAZIs and oh, BTW, Russia nuked Hiroshima.
Full Orwell. With AI and MIC ownership of all media and all communications, why not rewrite history?
As for NOT EVER voting for the insanity, well, perhaps there might be a “vote” here in US in 2024. Personally, I doubt it. So maybe no need to worry about that. Hillary is saying Russia is already interfering again in the elections.
The question is how to recover this country. If it can be, maybe that’s the first question. Listening to Clapper say he fears Trump might jail him if elected… Well, Trump damn well should jail him. That being, however, only a temporary measure while Clapper is on trial for his life. These bastards need to be planted on pikes along the interstate. Except maybe for Austin, who might more usefully be rendered into a vat of fat reserved for polishing the Raytheon board room table.
God bless those like Lavrov who speak much more calmly than I ever could; I fear he is wasting his time. It takes two to have a conversation. The problem even there is that the PTBs that run the US are deliberately seeking to destroy it – along the way looting what they can, yes; they are not just making a mistake.
All us poor schmucks who think the PTBs still have good intentions, fuggedaboutit. They are psychopaths looking for a big thrill as the world burns.

Posted by: oracle | Oct 1 2023 20:57 utc | 93

“…the key sentences state that the expansion of Nato was legal, but the SMO of Russia was illegal.
Someone will please explain to me how this claim makes sense. Did we not see when Russia was attempting to put missiles in Cuba during the Kennedy administration that such provocative acts are at the very least brinkmanship? Have we learned nothing from previous mistakes?…
This isn’t about Ukraine. This is about insanity. I’m NOT EVER going to vote for insanity.
Posted by: juliania | Oct 1 2023 18:18 utc | 31”
The US boasts that killing Russians is the best possible investment. That Russia should be broken up, dismembered, and – presumably – recolonized by the west. That no, of course NATO isn’t aiming for that and that of course the SMO is “illegal”. And in the meantime, let’s rehabilitate the NAZIs and oh, BTW, Russia nuked Hiroshima.
Full Orwell. With AI and MIC ownership of all media and all communications, why not rewrite history?
As for NOT EVER voting for the insanity, well, perhaps there might be a “vote” here in US in 2024. Personally, I doubt it. So maybe no need to worry about that. Hillary is saying Russia is already interfering again in the elections.
The question is how to recover this country. If it can be, maybe that’s the first question. Listening to Clapper say he fears Trump might jail him if elected… Well, Trump damn well should jail him. That being, however, only a temporary measure while Clapper is on trial for his life. These bastards need to be planted on pikes along the interstate. Except maybe for Austin, who might more usefully be rendered into a vat of fat reserved for polishing the Raytheon board room table.
God bless those like Lavrov who speak much more calmly than I ever could; I fear he is wasting his time. It takes two to have a conversation. The problem even there is that the PTBs that run the US are deliberately seeking to destroy it – along the way looting what they can, yes; they are not just making a mistake.
All us poor schmucks who think the PTBs still have good intentions, fuggedaboutit. They are psychopaths looking for a big thrill as the world burns.

Posted by: oracle | Oct 1 2023 20:57 utc | 94

Re Freeman’s article, I thought he was actually quite clear: there was enormous provocation by Ukraine/US/NATO over the years which very predictably led to Russia’s beginning of its kinetic actions in Ukraine. He does mention the fact that, according to international law, Russia’s action was illegal.
For some reason, this seems to always cause a lot of heartburn on MOA and similar sites and people bring up the many many times the USUKNATO have themselves broken these laws (very true, but whataboutism) and that Ukraine was attacking the Donbas areas since 2014 and thus the war had already started (true but immaterial since by international law, the Donbas is internal Ukraine territory such as, say, Xinxiang to China or Chechnya to Russia, and therefore Ukraine is allowed to take actions to secure its territory).
There is only one legal non-defensive way to wage international war between nations and that is pursuant to a UNSC decision. The USUKNATO has broken this law many many times and Russia did so last year as well. But this was almost a throwaway line in Freeman’s otherwise excellent article … does it really matter if Russia broke international law here when others routinely do so, at much less provocation and with much less justification? Frankly, to a realist like Freeman, legality comes a very late third to wisdom and practicality in terms of values. And there is not doubt in my mind reading this article that Freeman reserves almost the entire “blame” for this war on the provocations and designs of the US.
To me, the more interesting omission in the article is the common one of treating US actions as if the primary motivations are as stated: that NATO expansion and Russia’s reduction and Brezinski’s nonsense are the primary points, rather than being the surface justifications to paper over the real objective which always and everywhere in the care and feeding of MICIMATT.

Posted by: Caliman | Oct 1 2023 21:54 utc | 95

Re Freeman’s article, I thought he was actually quite clear: there was enormous provocation by Ukraine/US/NATO over the years which very predictably led to Russia’s beginning of its kinetic actions in Ukraine. He does mention the fact that, according to international law, Russia’s action was illegal.
For some reason, this seems to always cause a lot of heartburn on MOA and similar sites and people bring up the many many times the USUKNATO have themselves broken these laws (very true, but whataboutism) and that Ukraine was attacking the Donbas areas since 2014 and thus the war had already started (true but immaterial since by international law, the Donbas is internal Ukraine territory such as, say, Xinxiang to China or Chechnya to Russia, and therefore Ukraine is allowed to take actions to secure its territory).
There is only one legal non-defensive way to wage international war between nations and that is pursuant to a UNSC decision. The USUKNATO has broken this law many many times and Russia did so last year as well. But this was almost a throwaway line in Freeman’s otherwise excellent article … does it really matter if Russia broke international law here when others routinely do so, at much less provocation and with much less justification? Frankly, to a realist like Freeman, legality comes a very late third to wisdom and practicality in terms of values. And there is not doubt in my mind reading this article that Freeman reserves almost the entire “blame” for this war on the provocations and designs of the US.
To me, the more interesting omission in the article is the common one of treating US actions as if the primary motivations are as stated: that NATO expansion and Russia’s reduction and Brezinski’s nonsense are the primary points, rather than being the surface justifications to paper over the real objective which always and everywhere in the care and feeding of MICIMATT.

Posted by: Caliman | Oct 1 2023 21:54 utc | 96

May I recommend The Postil’s monthly summary of useful articles – this month’s Geopolitical list below:
Geopolitics
As the hold of globalism strengthens in the West, its ambitions worldwide are weakening as various nations align themselves into more favorable configurations. Alexander Dugin labels this reconstitution a heptapolarity whose contours he then defines.
Links embedded in above in original –
Main site here: https://www.thepostil.com/
Why has the President of Armenia abandoned his nation’s ancient territory of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan? Why has he chosen to peg the future of his country to the EU and the USA? Maxim Medovarov considers the forces at play in Armenia, which one hopes is not gearing itself up for more tragedy.
Enrico Magnani looks at Africa and what the current events unfolding there mean in the larger chess game of Russia and the West.
There is also the constant tussle between Spain and Morocco over the Western Sahara (once known as the Spanish Sahara). The people of this region are caught in the middle as they have realized that Morocco is no friend. Taleb Alisalem, who originally hails from this region, explains.
Teodoro de la Grange offers fresh insights as to the importance of Carl Schmitt in helping us understand the dynamics of the various power struggles that we see everywhere.
Much is said about the bloody repressions carried out by Franco after the Spanish Civil War ended. Are these assertions actually true? Historian Miguel Platón investigates and reports what he has uncovered.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Oct 1 2023 21:55 utc | 97

May I recommend The Postil’s monthly summary of useful articles – this month’s Geopolitical list below:
Geopolitics
As the hold of globalism strengthens in the West, its ambitions worldwide are weakening as various nations align themselves into more favorable configurations. Alexander Dugin labels this reconstitution a heptapolarity whose contours he then defines.
Links embedded in above in original –
Main site here: https://www.thepostil.com/
Why has the President of Armenia abandoned his nation’s ancient territory of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan? Why has he chosen to peg the future of his country to the EU and the USA? Maxim Medovarov considers the forces at play in Armenia, which one hopes is not gearing itself up for more tragedy.
Enrico Magnani looks at Africa and what the current events unfolding there mean in the larger chess game of Russia and the West.
There is also the constant tussle between Spain and Morocco over the Western Sahara (once known as the Spanish Sahara). The people of this region are caught in the middle as they have realized that Morocco is no friend. Taleb Alisalem, who originally hails from this region, explains.
Teodoro de la Grange offers fresh insights as to the importance of Carl Schmitt in helping us understand the dynamics of the various power struggles that we see everywhere.
Much is said about the bloody repressions carried out by Franco after the Spanish Civil War ended. Are these assertions actually true? Historian Miguel Platón investigates and reports what he has uncovered.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Oct 1 2023 21:55 utc | 98

@Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:14 utc | 12
Your attempt at pretense of philosophical acumen merely exposes the nano-shallowness of your erudition and the contradictory nature of your rantish arguments.
Order a stiff whiskey at the bar and console yourself in the quiet corner of the bar.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Oct 1 2023 22:06 utc | 99

@Ahenobarbus | Oct 1 2023 16:14 utc | 12
Your attempt at pretense of philosophical acumen merely exposes the nano-shallowness of your erudition and the contradictory nature of your rantish arguments.
Order a stiff whiskey at the bar and console yourself in the quiet corner of the bar.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Oct 1 2023 22:06 utc | 100

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